Bill seeking to abolish CPD Law filed in Congress

Lawmakers under a party-list group have filed a bill in the House of Representatives which seeks to abolish the controversial Continuing Professional Development (CPD) law.

ACT Teachers Party-List Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro filed House Bill No. 7171 proposing the repeal of the Republic Act No. 10912 or the “Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Act of 2016.”

The solons see CPD law as “geared to benefit foreign corporations—not the professionals themselves nor the Philippine economy, aside from imposing multiple financial, logistical, and psychological burdens on teachers and other professionals.”

“This government should no longer inconvenience our professionals in the name of business and foreign interests. We strongly urge the House of Representatives and the Senate to immediately hear and pass House Bill No. 7171 to repeal the CPD Act of 2016,” the solons said.

“The law was enacted in response to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) integration and its demand for greater labor migration, whereby Filipinos are exported as cheap providers of professional services,” Tinio pointed out. “The requirement for professionals to conform to the market-based ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework, which ‘enables comparisons of qualifications across ASEAN Member States’ and the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement, promote further the labor export policy, which already sends out of the country daily thousands of Filipinos, professionals among them.”

“Moreover, it also relies mainly on the private provision of continuing professional development, treating professionals as milking cows for profit. The CPD Act of 2016 forces them to spend thousands of pesos, take unpaid leaves from work, endure long queues, and go through a host of other hardships. The law even effectively endangers the security of tenure of public school teachers and other government employees,” Castro revealed.

The law requires them to accumulate credit units (from 15 or 45 for most professionals to as high as 120 for certified public accountants) every three years by attending seminars, training courses, and other professional development activities. Only then can they renew their licenses and continue practicing their professions.

“R.A. No. 10912 is an unnecessary law. Prior to its enactment, laws and regulations, including the various professional charters, codes of conduct, and complementary administrative issuances governing all the 53 existing professions, were sufficient to regulate the practice of these professions. The legal and administrative apparatus is already in place to ensure that professional standards are upheld, professional competencies are continuously developed, and public welfare is protected,” the solons ended.

In a senate hearing on Wednesday, CPD law author and Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization, and Professional Regulation chair Senator Antonio Trillanes IV addressed the issues surrounding the implementation of the CPD.

“There is no turning back from this law. Other countries also have this requirement,” Trillanes reiterated, adding that the measure is needed in the ASEAN integration.

“The CPD will raised or at least level up to global standards what is acceptable per profession,” he added.